Israeli court upholds decision to file no charges against officers who killed Palestinian

Ziad Jilani and his family (image from Moira Jilani)

by Saed Bannoura\

An Israeli state prosecutor decided Wednesday that no charges should be filed against two Israeli border control officers who shot and killed an unarmed Palestinian man in East Jerusalem in 2010. Ziad Jilani was shot in the back by the officers after a traffic accident in which his vehicle accidentally struck a police officer.

 Jilani was driving through an East Jerusalem street where officers had been firing rubber-coated steel bullets at youth, who were throwing stones at the officers. His windshield was hit by a stone, causing him to temporarily lose control of the vehicle and hit an Israeli policeman. Fearful for his life, Jilani fled the vehicle on foot but was chased down by Israeli officer Maxim Vinogradov who shot him in the back, and again while he was lying on the ground, killing him.

The Israeli state prosecutor, Yehuda Weinstein, upheld on Wednesday his previous decision not to file charges against Vinogradov or any of the other officers involved in the fatal shooting. In his statement to the press, Weinstein wrote, “We cannot rule out, beyond a reasonable doubt, that one of the officers really did believe in real time that the deceased, who moved his hand while lying wounded on the ground, was yet to be finally neutralized, and was still considered a danger. As a result, (Vinogradov) was startled, and committed another shooting from close range.”

On a blog commemorating her late husband’s life, Jilani’s widow, originally from Texas, wrote, “It takes a long lifetime hard work to raise a family and moments to steal the happiness of a family and its future. Once a happy family can never be that happy again, as Ziad’s face will not smile and his loud laughter will never be heard except while we are seeking and flipping the memories.”

According to a report by Pulse Media, “The case was closed last year, citing “lack of evidence” and the incident reported in Israeli media as a “hit-and-run terror attack”. Jilani’s widow, Moira Jilani, and the couple's three daughters, with the help of the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, conducted an independent investigation (including an autopsy, which the Israeli authorities refused to do, and the Israeli media dubbed “body snatching”). After identifying the killers; Maxim Vinogrodov, a Border Patrol officer, and his commander, Shadi Kherraldin, Moira Jilani demanded that the Israeli government prosecute the officers involved.

Now that the Israeli government has again refused to pursue the case, Moira Jilani has vowed to pursue other legsal channels to bring her husband's killers to justice.

 Source

Military Court Extends Administrative Detention Order Against PLC Member

Legislator Mohammad Abu Teir

by Saed Bannoura

 The Israeli “Ofer” Military Court ruled, Monday, for extending the Administrative Detention order, for the second time, against elected Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member, Mohammad Abu Teir, for additional six months.

 Abu Teir, 60, was kidnapped on September 6th, 2011, by the Israeli Army from his family’s home, in Kafr 'Aqab village, north of Jerusalem, and was placed under Administrative Detention order, without charges, for six months.

He was supposed to be released on Tuesday, but instead received an additional 6-month detention order.

The legislator was kidnapped when the Israeli army kidnapped elected Hamas legislators in the occupied West Bank in 2006. He was released in 2010 and his Jerusalem ID Card was revoked by the occupation; he was then kidnapped again, and was imprisoned from six months, before Israel issued a military order exiling him from Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Information Center reported that Abu Teir was repeatedly kidnapped and imprisoned by Israel, and spent a total of 30 years in captivity.

Israel’s illegal actions against the elected Palestinian officials in occupied Jerusalem led to the expulsion of Abu Teir along with Jerusalem legislators Ahmad Attoun, Mohammad Totah, and former Jerusalem Minister, Khaled Abu Arafa. They were kidnapped at their protest tend in front of the Red Cross in Jerusalem.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/63113

US Students campaign for release of nonviolent activist Fadi Quran

Fadi Quran

by Saed Bannoura

 After Israeli forces pepper sprayed and abducted US citizen and non-violent activist Fadi Quran on Friday, a group of students at Quran’s alma mater Stanford University have spearheaded a campaign for his release.

 The students organized an online petition that garnered 1,000 signatures in its first day, and have received messages of support from a number of academics, including renowned scholar Noam Chomsky, calling for Quran’s release.

Fadi Quran was involved in a non-violent march in the southern West Bank City of Hebron on Friday, organized by Youth Against Settlements. Israeli troops attacked the protesters with tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets, and also pepper sprayed a number of protesters at close range.

Quran was one of those who was pepper sprayed directly in the eyes. He was then pushed to the ground by Israeli soldiers, hitting his head on the bumper of an Israeli military transport vehicle and passing out briefly on the ground. A video of the protest shows Quran briefly regaining consciousness and calling for an ambulance, saying he couldn’t breathe.

Instead he was handcuffed and put into the back of an Israeli military vehicle, which took him to the Ofer military prison. At a hearing on Monday, Quran appeared to have recovered from his injuries. A military prosecutor presented secret evidence to the judge, who remanded the 24-year old non-violent activist back to Ofer prison on unspecified charges. His lawyer was told that he will receive a second hearing on Tuesday.

 http://www.imemc.org/article/63067

IOA confiscates 30 dunums of Palestinian land in Yatta

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has decided to expropriate 30 dunums of Palestinian cultivated land to the east of Yatta village south of Al-Khalil.

Quds Press quoted Ratib Al-Jabour, the coordinator of the popular anti settlement committee, as saying that the IOA told owners of those land that their land, which was confiscated weeks ago, were transferred into state property and that they would never be allowed back into it.

Jabour said that groups of Jewish settlers stormed this land about two weeks ago and took photos of its water wells and caves then declared it would not be in the hands of Palestinians for long.

In a similar development, he said that a group of Jewish settlers, escorted by Israeli occupation forces, delivered to Palestinian farmers owning land near Susiya settlement, to the south east of Yatta, on Wednesday a ruling by an Israeli court that their land would be seized and annexed to the settlement. He noted that IOF soldiers erected watchtowers on the land.

 http://www.palestine-info.co.uk

World Bank Joins Anti-BDS Campaign

A detour sign stands above a street renovation project, in Beirut.

By: Mouhamad Wehbe

Published Tuesday, February 21, 2012

 

The World Bank has officially requested that Lebanese boycott legislation - against companies with Israeli links - not apply to bids for bank-funded projects.

Over the past two years, Lebanese contractors working on projects overseen by the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) – a Lebanese government entity that deals with post-war reconstruction – have been hearing disturbing talk from representatives of foreign governments and organizations.

These governments and organizations have increasingly been objecting to the fact that firms bidding for CDR projects are required to be in compliance with Lebanese laws relating to the economic boycott of Israel.

The Italians have repeatedly voiced their disapproval of this stipulation, which since 2010 has been made explicit in the terms and conditions attached to CDR tendering documents.

European Union (EU) officials have said that this violates European competition rules. They note that the boycott legislation referred to in the terms and conditions disqualifies some European companies that might want to bid for contracts in Lebanon. But the EU has so far kept its objections verbal and has yet to lodge a written complaint.

Other Western providers of loans or grants for CDR contracts have also pressed for compliance with the boycott of Israel legislation to be dropped from the terms and conditions of bidding documents.

The World Bank has now made the demand official. On January 31, the director of its Middle East Department, Hedi Larbi, addressed a letter to CDR President Nabil al-Jisr titled: “Law of boycott of Israel in standard bidding and consulting documents under World Bank financed projects.”

The letter opens with a reminder that the World Bank has an obligation to “ensure that the proceeds of any loan are used only for the purposes for which the loan was granted, with due attention to considerations of economy and efficiency and without regard to political or other non-economic influences or considerations.”

It adds there are “detailed procedures” for this in its own guidelines – which provide for “firms and individuals from all countries” to bid for projects that it funds – and in its legal agreements with borrowing countries.

Larbi then refers to a “narrow list of exceptions,” under which the World Bank could allow a primary boycott of Israel to apply (i.e. a direct boycott of Israeli companies and products), but not a secondary boycott (of companies with strong Israeli links).

“Firms and individuals and goods manufactured in a country may be excluded if as a matter of law or official regulation, the borrower’s country prohibits commercial relations with that country,” the letter explains. But, the bank must be satisfied that this “does not preclude effective competition.”

However, Larbi points out that “the law for the boycott of Israel...[and the related blacklist] is not limited to primary boycotts.”

The Bank, therefore, will only “accept the exclusion of Israeli firms and individuals or goods manufactured in Israel [primary boycott], provided this is announced to potential bidders/consultants with the language contained in the relevant World Bank’s standard bidding and consultancy documents.”

The letter concludes: “Please remove from the bidding and consulting documents used for projects which are financed by the World Bank, the specific clauses concerning the law of boycott of Israel of 23/06/1955.”

Al-Akhbar sought an explanation for the letter from Larbi. He suggested its aim was to alert potential bidders for World Bank-funded projects that Lebanon applies a secondary boycott which the World Bank does not recognize. He said the letter was meant to inform companies that import Israeli goods or have Israeli partners that they could not bid.

But any company wanting to bid would know that anyway, as it would have found it clearly spelled out in the terms and conditions of the bidding documents. The World Bank seems intended to redefine the whole concept of the boycott in order to apply pressure on the CDR to remove these terms and conditions from World Bank-funded contracts.

Larbi did not elaborate on the timing of the move, though he noted it would be incumbent on the CDR to comply with the World Bank’s request.

It is also incumbent on the council to comply with the boycott of Israel legislation that has been in place in Lebanon since 1955. In June 2010, Economy and Trade Minister Mohammad Al Safadi issued a circular to all public and municipal bodies instructing them to ensure that any foreign firms with which they contracted had certified that they were compliant with the law.

 http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/world-bank-joins-anti-bds-campaign